2005 IRONMAN world champion Faris Al-Sultan (DEU) led a group of ten by almost a minute at the end of swim. The group contained contenders Balazs Csoke (HUN), Kevin Collington (USA) Drew Scott (USA), Tim Don (GBR), Christian Kemp (AUS) and Richie Cunningham (AUS).

Throughout much of the bike, Kemp, Collington and Don traded places out front while a chase group of 10 hovered a minute and a half back. As the bike neared completion, Don led into transition, but the first 10 were all within a minute.

For the first half of the run, Don held a narrow lead over Cruz and Collington. Once the second loop started, though, Don put the throttle down and pulled away from his challengers and went on to win in a blistering 3:42:49. Collington nudged out Cruz for second by 11 seconds.

Tisseyre blitzes the bike and run

Lauren Brandon (USA) dominated the swim and enjoyed a 1:48 lead on Canadians Karen Thibodeau and Magali Tisseyre.

Brandon put the pressure on the women’s field early on the bike. Behind her Tisseyre and Angela Naeth (CAN) were the only women who could match the pace, while the remainder of the field faded back. Tisseyre managed to storm by Brandon over in the final half of the bike and built up a two and half minute lead the American, and had over three minutes on Naeth as the women dismounted their bikes.

Once on the run, Tisseyre was untouchable. The multiple IRONMAN 70.3 winner used the fastest run split to take the IRONMAN 70.3 Monterrey title by over 10 minutes over Sarah Piampiano (USA). Naeth completed the podium in 4:12:54.